“This is the News at 5 O’clock with Grace Somerville, Good Afternoon. Today two men have been arrested on suspicion of Robbery with intent to injure however one accomplice remains at large. If anyone knows the whereabouts of Mundungus Fletcher they are urged to contact the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Norway has signed an appeasement deal. Dean Thomas, spokesperson for the Department of International Magical Cooperation has said that ‘the Ministry believes this is a step towards a settled Europe.’ St Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Malodies and Injuries has taken on its first Muggle Doctor in the hope of finding more varied and modern treatment; Lilia Albright our Health correspondent reports.” I bit my lip- it hadn’t been a good speech. I had stammered on suspicion. Sipping the glass of water beside me, I heard the door click.

It was Louis. I scowled at him, gesturing towards the door. He opened his mouth beginning to speak, but I shook my head, doing my best cut throat gestures.He opened his mouth to speak again, but again I prevented him from doing the dreaded. He looked at me questioningly; I suppose it did seem a little odd. I grabbed a piece of parchment and a quill from beside me, and wrote him a note. Shut up! Broadcast Orb broken! Keeps broadcasting after switch sometimes. Get out.

Louis read the note and nodded, before gesturing for me to pass him the quill. Agreeing, I turned up the volume of Lilia’s report. She had obviously nearly finished her interview with Doctor Gregory McGee, so I didn’t have long until I was back on air. Louis was still writing on the parchment, balanced precariously against a cardboard box. After a moment, he handed the parchment back to me. Yours does that too? Tech Support keeps saying they’re too busy. Bollocks. Anyway, Abercrombie says she accidently put my notes in here. Need to go and get them, see?

I nodded, and passed the pile of notes that didn’t belong to me towards him, along with the parchment with my own message on it.Lay off Georgie, she’s only nineteen. Look through these, and if they’re not there then you can wait till the end of the show. Now go away, I’m about to go back on air.

“Thank you Lilia. The Ministry continues to oppose the movement to permit students going to Hogwarts to travel in ways other than the train. Gigi Higgs, head of the department of Education spoke on the matter last Friday.” I tapped the orb containing Gigi’s speech and turned around. Louis had left the room, and probably gone to his meeting for the 8 O’clock news.

“Finally, Cursebreaker Ernest Macmillan has been killed in Chile. Macmillan is the fourth Cursebreaker to be killed this year in an attempt to investigate new leads on the location of the fortune that He Who Must Not Be Named stole from the Ministry. The WWN wishes to send its condolences to his family and friends. This has been the News at 5 O’Clock with Grace Somerville, thank you and good evening.”

*

“It was a good show this afternoon.” Rose was spread out across the sofa, a textbook propped against her knees. She was still in her pyjamas, and her hair was haphazardly tied in two bunches.

“You always say that” I sighed, hanging up my coat on the line of hooks by the door.

“That’s not really true.” Rose said, putting the dirty spoon down on the rug below her. “Sometimes I don’t say anything at all, like the time you said youthought Beethoven was a dog, and how weird muggles were always going on about such dirty animals.” As usual, Rose carried out her life’s mission- antagonising me. She wasn’t being serious, but I was a little annoyed as I flopped down on our armchair, shoving the cat onto the floor.

“Why does everyone always go on about that? It was one tiny mistake!” I scowled. I had only been a reader for about three months, and I had been informing my listeners that the Nightbus had been cancelled for the week because of delays caused by celebrations for five-hundred-and-fifth anniversary of Beethoven’s death, and not yet versed in the particulars of news-broadcasting, I had made a small comment on the matter. A small comment.

“One tiny hilarious mistake.” Rose muttered, biting back a laugh. Rose Weasley was one of those people who naturally looked kind. She had round, dimpled cheeks which were scattered with the world’s worth of freckles, a small almost-but-not-quite snub nose, but her most prevalent feature were her twinkling blue eyes.

Of course, looks can be deceiving, and hers certainly were. Rose was not, and never had been in all the years I’d known her, a kind person. She was a good person, a brave person, a noble person and a smart person, but not a kind person.

“Shut up Rose.” I snapped, shaking my head at her. “Anyway, what are you at home? Shouldn’t you be out learning things?” Normally on a Friday, Rose was at the training hospital, learning how to be a good Healer, and generally being intelligent.

“Ah, well, they gave us the day off. We only had old Jimble and he wanted to go and ogle the new ‘doctor’ bloke.” She said, retrieving her spoon and going back to her mission to ravage the pot of yoghurt in her hand. Deciding that the conversation was over, I stood up, grabbed my coat again, and turned to Rose.

“I’m meeting up with Francis and a couple of other people from work, I’ll be back by eightish, if you’re hungry there are some noodles in that bag” I said, gesturing towards the plastic bag from the muggle food shop I’d popped into on my way home. “Leave some for me, though, we’re going to the Dragon’s Tooth, and the food there poison.” I waved at her, before locking the door.